Grafar Desiros

[Thebaz]

Af'noon.

I have a Class 450 on pre-order but considering how much it may cost - c. £300-£350 - and when it might be available - December 2020 at the earliest, I'm wondering whether I should just buy the Class 350 (because you can get them relatively cheap on ebay) and adapt with graphics vinyls of my choice, plus a little detailing for the pickup shoes.
Does anyone have any experience of doing this, including removing pantograph and filling the hole? Also what is the LOD on the 350 compared to what the 450 will be - will the 450 be more detailed?

[njee20]

Yep, I've done quite a few. The Electra vinyls are good, you do need to paint the roofs and body ends. Filling the pantograph hole is trivial.

You really want the 350/1 donor model as it's got the third rail shoes. The biggest issue is getting the vinyls to sit nicely on the windows as they're slightly recessed, you tend to get bubbles, unless you cut out all the windows, which is a massive faff. I tried removing the glazing from the donor model (and just having the vinyl glazing), but the clips to keep the body on are in the glazing, so then you have to glue the bodyshell on somehow. Top one shows the effect quite clearly - you get a 'halo' around the edge of the window.

Not my finest work, but passable!







Edit: you'll want to strip the shells too, the livery elements show through the vinyls otherwise, and you need to sand the CDL lights flat to avoid a marked bump on the body side.

[Thebaz]

Thanks for the advice - Looks pretty good all in all. I suppose the option is there to gently cut around the vinyl glazing to get a flush fit if I can be bothered. Does the 350/1 model have working lights and DCC ready? Not that I'm doing DCC but you never know..

[njee20]

You can, I did that once, it was a massive faff, but did look better. Be aware they say "London Euston" on the destination blinds too.

Yes, all of them are the same base model, they did a 350/0 and 350/1 in the 2 liveries. You do need 3 decoders on the 4-car unit which is a bit of a pain.

[Thebaz]

How do you go about changing the unit numbers and destination blinds. Are there transfer sheets available somewhere?

[njee20]

The Electra vinyls include the unit end numbers, but not destination blinds, I just didn't bother, as I thought replacements (particularly vinyls) would be more obvious than just having the wrong destination. The font on the unit numbers is slightly larger, cruel photo enlargement below.

Note that 450s have a half black gangway at the end too, whilst most of the Farish 350s are all yellow. I think painting yields a far better result than using the included vinyl there.

Let me know if this image works, it's in a shared album on my own Google photo account...

IMG_7183 by njee20, on Flickr

[Thebaz]

Hiya, image doesn't work I'm afraid.

[jpendle]

That's weird. It did when he posted it, but now its gone.

John P

[njee20]

Edited.

[Thebaz]

Aye up.

My first set of vinyls have arrived and I'm getting quite excited at the prospect of doing my first conversion! Do you have any recommendations for the blue paint for the roof?